SaaS applications are quickly becoming the norm for enterprises of all sizes. Gartner has forecasted that enterprise cloud application services will growth with a CAGR ~15% between 2016 and 2020, with a TAM of $75 billion dollars. The aggressive growth of SaaS in the enterprise has significant productivity and user experience implications, particularly as core business applications switch to SaaS delivery. If the cloud is the new data center, then the Internet is the New LAN, but the overarching question is: Is the Internet ready? Will the ‘Internet’ provide the requisite level of performance? This session will provide an overview of Internet routing, explore and discuss the challenges the Internet presents for fast, reliable application connectivity, and industry validated end user expectations and requirements. Register me

Privacy and confidentiality are serious concerns and service providers must understand and deliver what is re quired. Likewise, customers must be confident their communications providers meet published standards in order to protect both end customers and the business itself. How do cloud communications services are compliant and what questions should you ask to make sure your provider can meet your regulatory and internal compliance standards? Register me

Today’s communication service providers (CSPs) understand the impending need to go fully digital in order to meet the needs of their customers. However, in a world of mergers and acquisitions, changing customer expectations, and rapid innovation, it can be a struggle to understand exactly how to begin on that digital journey toward optimal customer engagement. This session will uncover key areas CSPs need to focus on when implementing a digital transformation strategy. Register me

Software-Defined WAN enables digital transformation; secure data transfer across the WAN, to and from the cloud, and creates a reliable connection from branch locations to the cloud and meet today's business demands. This session will explore the transformative properties of SD-WAN, elevating the WAN to support our always-on, always plugged-in, SaaS-y business world. Register me

While the hype around WebRTC may have quieted, its use in increasing. What has happened in the past year to drive growth? How is web-based communication helping businesses? Panelists will discuss specific, unique implementations of WebRTC. Register me

With all the new communications platforms and applications being built, there is a need for VoIP carriers to evolve as well. It is one thing to simply resell dial tone, it is another thing altogether to actually be a carrier. So, what would a next-gen carrier look like? What is an internet-centric telecom built on? What does it mean to be API-driven? What does it take for a VoIP provider to also be a licensed carrier? What's possible with a communications platform that's truly global and next-gen? Register me

The adoption of Voice, UC and Contact Center platforms in the cloud is increasing at a rapid pace. However, even though cloud providers offer SLAs and have a critical responsibility to provide a high level of service, there is still a tremendous opportunity for MSPs to help customers ensure a smooth migration from on-prem to the cloud and to offer ongoing operations services for both their on-prem and cloud users. Given that the cloud doesn't eliminate the need for on-prem devices (e.g. SBCs, CCE Servers, network, etc.) and the cloud providers SLAs typically only extend as far as their own data center network, the customer is left with troubleshooting issues when they don't sit in the responsibility of the cloud provider.
In this session learn more about the market shift to Cloud UC and considerations and opportunities to offer value add Managed and Professional services focused on Skype for Business, Skype for Business Online, Teams, Cisco, BroadSoft, Webex Teams, Avaya and other leading communications and customer experience platforms. Register me

The C-suite offers unique perspective on digital transformation. Digital-first firms have crossed the threshold, while others are still dabbling in a software-defined, cloud-driven future. So where does SD-WAN fit into this equation, today? This C-Suite only panel will take stock of where SD-WAN stands as an industry. Register me

What is the status of the WebRTC 1.0 specifications? What implementations is the market seeing? What new features are available that developers can take advantage of as they create new use cases? Register me

When it comes to adopting containers in Telco, Security is the highest adoption barrier. Are you ready to address the security risks with containers? In this presentation, you'll learn about best practices for addressing the top container security risks in a container environment including images, builds, registry, deployment, hosts, network, storage, APIs, monitoring & logging, and federation, automating and integrating security vulnerability management & compliance checking for container images in a DevOps CI/CD pipeline, Deployment strategies for deploying container security updates. Register me

Hear real stories from managed and IT services providers about their experience in implementing cloud into their service offerings. What are their key obstacles and how do they overcome them? What has worked and what hasn’t? How do they differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive cloud marketplace? This presentation will present and examine the key findings of a live virtual panel session with MSPs and cloud providers. Register me

There is a clear trend of companies choosing to move away from traditional, rigid WANs dependent on MPLS. Increased bandwidth, significant cost savings and flexibility are but a few benefits of SD-WAN. This session will provide insight into the ROI of your shiny new SD-WAN deployment. Register me

Since the dawn of the smartphone, IT consumerization has played a major role in the way businesses work and use technology. Today the trend continues with businesses adopting new, trending solutions at every level of the tech stack, including business communications. The key, however, is to do it all in real time. Explore how real-time is powering today’s business communications and the benefits and use cases that are emerging, including, enhanced customer service, support and sales capabilities and tools. Register me

This presentation will walk MSP Expo attendees through the challenges and opportunities throughout the day of a service delivery manager. It will discuss everything from how to get the most effectiveness out of the team, to rostering your team to different activities throughout the day by ‘slide deploying’ the team. Register me

Customer Service has traditionally been accepted as a loss leader. With modern engagement strategies, increased internal collaboration, and so many potential contact points, new tools are helping businesses turn the customer interaction model upside down. The result is an ability to look at every engagement as a revenue opportunity. Register me

Now that GDPR has gone into effect, how have the new rules impacted businesses and customers and what should you expect to see going forward with regards to data privacy and security. What new requirements may be coming? Register me

This session will talk about how MSPs risk losing customers and revenue unless they deliver credible hosted cloud offerings that rival those of Amazon Web Services and the other big players. Of course, in-house cloud platforms can be expensive and complicated. But MSPs don’t have to become cloud deployment experts to offer multitenant cloud services. This presentation will talk about all that and provide advice on what they do need to do. Register me

From the time of its entrance to the main stage, SD-WAN continues to serve industry well living up to the hype at every turn. One area, in particular, where this maturing solution shines is application performance. This power lunch will explore how SD-WAN is able to keep its promise of application performance from a few industry leaders. Register me

From the humble beginnings of IVR, where its only job was to be an automated receptionist, IVR has grown into an actual extension of a company’s brand. That’s the dream, at least. Hear a unique perspective from a voiceover professional (including being known as The Voice of Asterisk) on IVR and how it’s progressed, and aspects that are holding it back. No longer just a mechanism to “sort” callers, understand how IVR can be used to identify a company; to reinforce their brand and give callers a clear and distinct picture of what it will be like to do business with them. “For this, press that…” is out. Showing distinction, personality, and brand identity through your IVR is in. This educational, yet entertaining presentation will feature real-world examples of current trends in IVR, illustrating the importance of not leaving your IVR out of your branding paradigm. Register me

As businesses evolve to support a complete digital experience, a challenge has emerged to one of the most basic questions of doing business: How can I truly “know my customer?" In the world of data breaches and identity theft, legacy programs of identity proofing and identity verification do not instill a high level of confidence in the end user’s claims. New technologies and approaches are needed to deliver a high level of digital trust with your new customers as you seamlessly onboard them to your service. Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) can present unique identity management challenges: the scale is larger, the data may be more sensitive, business risk is heightened, and a whole new category of attack-based vectors can potentially unfold – a true identity crisis can emerge. Register me

Businesses and other organizations have come to rely on Wi-Fi to get connectivity wherever they are. So when Wi-Fi is unavailable or unreliable, it can really put a kink in productivity. This session will discuss how MSPs can deliver Wi-Fi services that provide their customers with strong performance and reliability. Register me

A future filled with billions of connected devices elevating every aspect of life is not far off, but before the IoT is able to meet the mark questions loom. SD-WAN stands to play a clear role in turning these projections to reality, and this session will take attendees to the digital crossroads where IoT and SD-WAN come together. Register me

In a mobile-first world where 90% of consumers want to interact with brands through messaging, businesses need to be where their customers are more than ever, whether that’s Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat or one of several popular global messaging apps (including Apple Business Chat… soon!). But for too many companies, omnichannel remains more a dream than reality. At best they’re multi-channel, managing each channel as a silo, unable to leverage the extraordinary context that only a truly unified messaging experience can provide. Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the 57-year-old luxury brand, understands the power, intimacy, and potential of modern B2C messaging. Four Seasons Chat is an omnichannel messaging platform that empowers hotel staff to provide personalized, localized and truly exceptional experiences for customers across their 100+ global properties. In this inspiring and actionable session, we will discuss how our team worked to help Four Seasons build a messaging experience that puts customers, not channels, at the center of the conversation—and why you should too. Register me

Technology changes quickly, and managed service providers need to evolve to keep pace. Today, businesses on the lookout for MSPs have much higher expectations than they did just a few short years ago. Failing to meet these expectations will lead to unprepared MSPs being left behind. To remain competitive, it’s crucial for MSPs to stand out from the crowd. They can do that by offering a full suite of services – including voice services. This session will discuss evolving workplace communication requirements, what UC is and why business customers need it, and how UC and voice services bring value to the MSPs that offer them. Register me

With Gartner expecting cloud migration to affect $1 trillion in IT spending by the end of 2020, it is clear there is money to be made. Cloud computing is one of the most disruptive technologies today, promising lucrative opportunities for those ready to meet this demand. This session will help you discover ways to lower your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), set-up winning customer-acquisition budgets, and make the investments necessary to acquire ideal clients. You'll also learn clever ways to reduce CAC, build a strategy for increasing the value of your business through monthly recurring revenue (MRR), and adopt new tactics to increase the lifetime value of the customer relationship. Register me

As Asterisk applications grow in scale, a time comes when solution designers need to choose an architecture to distribute load and manage security. Potential solutions include SIP servers and Session Border Controllers (SBCs), but which makes the most sense? A key difference between the two is the use of a Back-to-Back User Agent (B2BUA) within a SBC.
During this session you will learn and how B2BUAs work, how they provide topology hiding, interoperability and security that is difficult to replicate with a SIP server. Register me

To remain competitive, communications providers have to constantly innovate and reinvent their service capabilities. How are new technologies enabling more agile response to customer demands? What role do virtualization, DevOps, APIs, containerization, and open source technologies have in driving innovation and competition? Register me

As enterprises continue to look for ways to increase their adoption of public cloud services, the cloud twofer - the right MSP and the right cloud management platform - can become a model for cloud MSPs to increase their revenue and accelerate growth. Cloud MSPs can be catalysts for change and seamless collaboration across the entire organization. They can serve as trusted advisors and curators of a dizzyingly complex software Lego marketplace, helping enterprises take advantage of the true agility of the cloud across the entire lifecycle of IT and DevOps within the organization. Register me

Today’s opportunities are too big for any one company to seize on its own. They cross industries, span the globe, and require rapid implementation of fast-moving technologies. Only by bringing together a multiparty ecosystem of complementary partners can we hope to efficiently address the many facets of a complex global challenge. This session discusses an innovation model based on “massive inclusion,” which requires that everyone needed to move a solution forward should be in the room together communicating. Massive inclusion stems from an expanded view of diversity and emphasizes unified collaboration. It brings together everyone affected by an industry issue—from the CEO, to the warehouse worker, to the end customer—and embraces the full spectrum of ethnicities, genders, backgrounds, cultures, orientations, and workstyles. Register me

Traditional marketing is officially a thing of the past. Product and customer experience is officially the new “brand” that consumers recognize. But what does this mean for MSPs? Join Chris McGovern from Presh Marketing Solutions as he discusses the new consumer decision process, and what action your business must take now in order to remain relevant. Register me

Attend this session to learn more about the key practices of securing your cloud-based VoIP deployments.
- We explain how to protect your PBX in the cloud without having to significantly affect the performance of it.
- We will run through solutions such as integrating OpenVPN in your PBX.
- We will also show more advanced solutions such as Session Border Controller and how to Implement FreeSBC.
And we will compare and contrast which solution is most suitable for your PBX depending on your work environment. Register me

For far too long security served as an afterthought for far too many organizations. Now, as digital first forms dive headfirst into the cloud and the digital age security is more important than ever. This session will explore securing your software defined WAN deployment. Register me

The way we work is changing. Teams are no longer confined to single offices, but span the entire world. In fact, more than half of the workforce will contribute remotely by 2020, so businesses require purpose-built tools to help employees succeed. As a result, it’s important to build tools reflective of the way we work, accelerating productivity, as opposed to being a roadblock to getting work done. The communications tools of the future will bring us closer together and make collaboration more productive whether we’re in a meeting room, at our desks, or on mobile while on the road, and machine learning is playing an increasingly important role. In this session, Google Cloud Office of the CTO Executives Diane Chaleff will discuss the changing communication landscape in the enterprise, including:
- Why users appreciate specialization in an application over one with many functions
- How to adjust strategy and product design to meet team the collaboration needs Google continues to see
- Machine learning’s role in facilitating team collaboration and communication, like bots and audio/visual suggestions Register me

Hardware as a Service (HaaS) is a proven business model for MSPs and technology solution providers. You sell a total solution to the end-customer. They get the hardware, software, installation, training, and consulting that comes fully managed and all for a single monthly payment. Attend this session and learn:•What products and services can and should be bundled into a HaaS offering•How to position, market and sell to the end-customer•How to finance and profit from HaaS Register me

In another example of consumerization of business tech, mobile messaging is becoming an increasingly important part of communications capabilities for businesses. But, it’s not always easy to deploy or manage or integrate into existing capabilities – both from a tech and adoption perspective. Why is messaging becoming critical, what are the benefits, and how can you make it part of your communications landscape? Register me

Large satellites in fixed locations are out! Constellations of low-flying satellites are in, providing fiber-like latency and high-speed bandwidth, promising global coverage to connect everything from airplanes and yachts to extending the reach of 5G networks. This panel will discuss old and new models for delivering satellite broadband, the players involved and potential headaches towards affordability for all. Register me

IT talent can be hard to find – and when organizations find the people they want, those individuals can be expensive to hire and retain. This session will discuss what skills are most in need, why, and what MSPs can do to fill the gap for their business customers. Register me

New investments in cloud and smart digital workplaces are dramatically shifting investments away from traditional branch architectures. These priorities propel investment in new software-defined solutions that can simplify management, control and visibility across campus and branch networks. In this session, we will explore key customer priorities driving SD-WAN and define how to secure and optimize user services across WAN, LAN and WLAN in any location. Register me

End-user computing (EUC) is experiencing a major shift in where people work, and the devices they use to do their job. A recent global survey shows that no less than 70% of respondents are working away from the office at least once a week, and 53% work remotely at least half time. This shift from the traditional office and desktop work environment is disrupting not only how we think about our workday but what we expect from our organizations in terms of providing the device and application tools we need to fulfill our professional responsibilities. This will outline several approaches that can be taken to deliver the experience user’s want from any device, anywhere and at any time, including embracing new workspace models, moving from a hardware to a software mindset, improving security across all devices, and making Windows 10 more user-friendly. Register me

Now more than ever, businesses should be thinking outside of the box when it comes to how they communicate internally and with their customers. Collaboration, mobility, and flexibility are no longer options in today’s competitive marketplace. This session will take a look at what’s to come in 2019. Register me

The real value in SD-SWAN is hyper-converged edge computing. SD-WAN coupled with NFV is the key. Orchestration of network services, applications and fog computing makes the story richer and more compelling for customers to make the decision to start their journey. Register me

It is imperative that the IVR prompts which welcome the callers to your Call Center Experience ‘play nice’ with the persona of your call center – much like a warmup band at a concert, the IVR is the ‘opening act’ which greets, preps, and sets the tone for the service in the call center – the mainstage act. It’s critical that the IVR that callers encounter before interacting with your call center accurately reflects the culture and the personality of the call center. Like a good warmup band, the IVR generates the tone – the call center brings it home. Register me

In a follow-up to last year’s conversation at ITEXPO, this session looks at real data to show how the robocall epidemic continues to get worse and worse, and how it is negatively impacting the ability of businesses to connect with customers on their telephones. What does that mean for companies whose businesses involve selling telephony services, and where and how this is likely to shake out. Register me

As enterprises increasingly consume SaaS and transition to the cloud, revenue opportunities for MSPs are shifting. With this transition, applications are increasingly located outside of branch locations, which makes managing the end-to-end quality and reliability of sessions important. MSPs have opportunities to leverage multi-path routing to manage the edge and WAN for enterprises and to deliver cloud services more reliably by employing SD-WAN technologies.
Erik Thoen of 128 Technology Register me

CPaaS is a rapidly evolving technology. Learn the important elements to focus on in order keep your company ahead of the competition with the best communications capabilities for your business needs. Register me

There’s no time to be offline. This becomes especially true as the Internet hosts more and more business-critical applications and services. While 5G is still around the corner, the throughput available today from cellular service providers can outperform traditional broadband circuits, and is often installed as a secondary network uplink for business continuity/ cellular failover. Yet backup is only the beginning. Wireless connectivity is easy to deploy, and is as fast as many wireline alternatives while being more resilient against service interruptions, making it increasingly viable as a primary connection. This panel will explore the use of wireless for enterprise including fixed wireless for wireline replacement, using wireless to back up wireline, and other use cases for evolving wireless technologies including 5G and the introduction and use of shared spectrum for wireless based on CBRS. Register me

Midsize organizations face a daunting challenge. They are under attack by the same sophisticated security threats as their large enterprise counterparts, yet lack the financial resources, skills and staff to implement the advanced protection they need. The same challenges are placed onto the shoulders of service providers, who are entrusted to support these midsize enterprises. With 87% of midsize enterprises investing in security-as-a-service over the next 12 months, how are MSP’s adapting? In this session, Ken will present a new approach MSPs are taking to address this security gap and to answer the call from their clients for more robust risk management in a more simplified, cost-effective, and flexible way -- from the cloud.
Attendees will learn:
- The advantages and disadvantages of utilizing security-as-a-service -- from an MSP perspective
- How MSPs are tackling multi-cloud and hybrid IT challenges by utilizing cloud-delivered security
- Real-world use cases being addressed by MSPs and the value they are generating as a result Register me

Explosive SD-WAN projections illustrate a clear opportunity for vendors, but more importantly the channel and adjacent markets make for low hanging fruit. MSPs, VARs and ISPs are in a unique position to strike while the iron is hot with networking services shaping the future. This session discusses how MSPs, VARs and ISPs can leverage this up-and-coming technology. Register me

With an endless list of collaboration tools and services to choose from, how can businesses select and implement ones that will keep them ahead of their competition? What are the options, what do they all mean for businesses and teams, and what best practices should businesses leaders follow to drive adoption and growth? Register me

Cloud services are a key component for companies meeting demands for access to information and resources. However, it’s no secret that this comes with major security challenges, as companies hold sensitive and protected personal information in their databases that they have a responsibility to keep protected. In recent years, many Fortune 500 organizations, and even more smaller businesses, have suffered breaches and leaked data making the cloud scary. Data protection is invaluable to companies and customers alike, but it also serves no benefit to keep data protected if it is not accessible. This session will focus on ways to keep your business flexible and agile without compromising security or breaking your budget, including a discussion what organizations are doing wrong and what can we learn from historic incidents. Register me

There is no room for questions when it comes to quality of service when it comes to application performance. Whether it’s voice, video, or your favorite SaaS application, QoS is key. SD-WAN removes QoS doubt, learn how in this session. Register me

The ability for leadership teams to collaborate with global offices and remote workforces has changed dramatically, both in the technology being used and the methods used to communicate. Over the last 25 years the business world has made the slow transition from basic conference call technology to high capacity phone bridges, then to dedicated video conferencing rooms. Most organizations have stalled on the use of standard desktop, browser-based video conferencing but even the most updated and expensive video conferencing solutions have significant limitations, with live meeting participants often experiencing latency, buffering, and even complete video meeting failure with as few as 25 active participants. This session considers a hybrid alternative, combining video conferencing and video streaming to enable high-quality, scalable, two-way conferencing. Register me

With the number of high-profile data breaches in the media, security and authentication have got to eb top of mind for businesses. This session considers a system and methodology for adaptive selection of multiple modalities for authentication in different operating environments, making authentication strategy unpredictable and reducing risk. Register me

Atlanta spent millions to clean up the Ransomware attack earlier this year. Could the city have been better prepared? Would the damage have been so crippling? Lack of resources often lead to gaps in security posture leading to costly and inconclusive incident response ventures. This talk will use the recent Atlanta ransomware incident and how the city responded to it. We will use Atlanta as a case study in examining the costly mistakes of being underprepared.
The goal of this presentation is to provide insight to IT and organizational decision makers of the incident response process, costs, outcome, and how preparing can prevent costly IR ventures.
This talk will cover the following topics: - The Atlanta ransomware incident and timeline; - Incident Response process; - The true costs of being underprepared. Register me

The way to communicate with the contact center is changing fast…?One of the live motif driven by new Artificial Intelligent engines is the possibility to provide information to customers via Virtual Agents, by means of ChatBots. The XCALLY Team played quite long with Omni Channel Asterisk solutions: the natural evolution is to understand how deal with ChatBots, thus to provide self-service messaging solutions. However that’s not enough: are you using Asterisk? So why not thinking to some ChatBot evolution, where the customer can engage with your contact center by phone? But this time the customer is presented with a Voice Robot engine - we are calling it VoiceBot indeed - capable of recognising the customer voice, and get back to him/her, just like a Bot, using virtual agent voice, besides only messages! And here the things start to get really interesting, because we are trying to see what we can do when the Asterisk contact center Robot can’t find reasonable answers for the customer… Dangerous demo will be played during the session, in order to see when the above concepts work and when they break! Emphasis will be given as much as possibile to free concepts, some of them even under Alfa and Beta stage - in order to share the vision with the Open Source community -providing ideas and collecting as many feedbacks as we can from the attendees. The always passionate Asterisk XCALLY Team Diego Gosmar - Giuseppe Innamorato. Register me

This session will give business leaders concrete takeaways that will help them build and retain stronger vendor/provider relationships. These include setting common goals, reviewing expectations and needs and identifying resources to help win deals and gain traction.
Exactly how vendors approach the MSP means everything to the relationship. In a competitive landscape its importance for MSPs get up and running quickly, but deeply understanding the business model and finding ways to accelerate how MSPs can operationalize or monetize a service has to be done the right way so that the relationship that is built can be a strong-long lasting one.
It’s not only about signing contract. Education and team building needs to happen at the very start. Onsite and virtual workshops will take this relationship to the next level. Working together from the beginning will transform the MSP business into a trusted partner. MSPs can’t just wait for a new checkpoint such as a new hardware/software refresh. They need to be proactive in order to keep relationships between vendors and customers strong. Without it, it makes it challenging for both parties to succeed. Register me

Operators around the globe are eager to become Digital Service Providers (DSP), moving away from the current Communications Service Provider (CSP) business model. This requires them adopting strategies using virtualization, automation and DevOps. SD- WAN is also a promising component of this, but there are challenges. Register me

Wait no longer to add some of today's coolest customer connection tools to your contact center. We will explore several enhancements, includingcallback in queue, ASR/TTS using cloud APIs, SMS, and AI "chatbot" technologies that can be built easily onto an existing Asterisk-based contact center. Whether FreePBX, raw Asterisk, or Digium Switchvox, we'll navigate options and learn how to build some of these features! Register me

Mobility is a key component to building an efficient, agile digital business. As part of a digital transformation strategy, you need the right tools in place that will not only enable your teams to work and collaborate anywhere or any device, but to do so in a secure and effective way leveraging smartphones, tablets, wearable devices, in addition to more traditional laptops. What is your best path forward for driving collaboration and productivity in a mobile environment without sacrificing security? Register me

With so many options for where to host your servers and applications, it may seem impossible to know what to look for in a secure and compliant cloud hosting provider. If done right, a cloud hosting provider can usually do a much better job of hosting systems than you would be able to on your own. This session will describe the various things to look for when choosing a cloud hosting provider to ensure you are staying safe and your data remains secure, including and examination of various industry and governmental regulations that impact business opportunity. At the end of the session, attendees will walk away better armed to go out and secure cloud hosting arrangements they can feel good about and that will serve their needs and those of their customers. Register me